Community Corner

Your Take: Should the 'Morning-After' Pill Be Available Over the Counter to Anyone?

Rallies are being held across the country Tuesday in opposition to the Obama administration's efforts to limit access to the contraception to girls younger than 17.

By Elissa Bass

A rally is planned Tuesday in New Haven and other cities across the country to protest the Obama administration's efforts to restrict access to the so-called 'morning-after pill'.

WORD — Women Organized to Resist and Defend — and National Women's Libersation are holding events in 10 cities Tuesday to "to demand an end to the Obama administration's interference with women's access to safe, legal and affordable emergency contraception without ID and age restrictions."
On Friday, a federal judge "denied the Obama administration's request to delay his order that the Plan B morning-after pill be made available over the counter without age limits. The judge sharply rebuked the administration for appealing his decision, calling the move politically motivated, “frivolous," and "something out of an alternate reality."  

The Obama administration argues that girls under the age of 17 should continue to only have access to the pill with a doctor's prescription.

The morning-after pill, also called emergency contraception, "works by keeping a woman's ovary from releasing an egg for longer than usual. Pregnancy cannot happen if there is no egg to join with sperm. ... The morning-after pill is not the abortion pill,"according to Planned Parenthood

What's your take? Should teenage girls be able to buy the morning-after pill off the shelf, or should they be required to have a prescription? Share your thoughts in the comments below.


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